The nitration of hydrocarbons generally produces a variety of products depending upon the reaction conditions and the feedstock structure. For instance, the commercial vapor phase process for propane nitration results in a mixture of four nitroparaffin products (nitromethane, 1-nitropropane, 2-nitropropane, and nitroethane) in essentially fixed relative concentrations.
Certain products, however, may be more desirable than others, and it has been a long-time goal to selectively produce the more useful nitrated compounds at the expense of the less useful compounds. Conventional reactor designs have potential mixing, temperature control, and corrosion issues. In addition, because conventional reactors do not exhibit high selectivity towards the desired products, the downstream separation process can be very capital intensive. A need exists, therefore, for more economical and selective processes and reactors for the manufacture of selectively nitrated nitroparaffins.